


Stuck in The Middle

by lilacnightmares



Category: Ever After High
Genre: A Not So First Date, Carnival, Chase comes to Ever After High, Everyone sighs because they both need to admit they like each other, F/M, Ferris Wheels, First Date, Instrospective, Oblivious Bunny, Third Wheels, oblivious Alistair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25394833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacnightmares/pseuds/lilacnightmares
Summary: Chase is settling in Ever After High, but just as he gets comfortable, he realizes that he’s a third wheel. What should he do about that?Work from Tumblr.
Relationships: Bunny Blanc/Alistair Wonderland
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	Stuck in The Middle

If there was one thing that struck Chase as odd, it was things worked so differently in Ever After then they did back in Wonderland.

It was to be expected, of course, as they were different realms after all. Though, it was nice to be someplace where he could collect his thoughts and try some new things for once. That was why he had transferred to Ever After High in the first place after the curse was lifted and there was nothing to worry about anymore—

It left a lot of the people in Wonderland trying to pick together the pieces of their lives and try to grasp what had been lost all those years ago when the Evil Queen created her curse. So many of the people there were affected in a bad way. When the curse took you, you weren’t seen or heard from again. 

A lot of the minor characters in Wonderland that had nothing to do with the story were left and gone for years. Chase’s parents happened to be one of the many people that were taken away by the curse, and as much as that had hurt him when he was a boy, he was happy that the Redford family took him in. 

They had a daughter but they did not have a son.

So, it worked all the better for them as the storybook world required another knight to take the helm opposing the White Knight.

Chase knew that this was a chance that he couldn’t pass up so he took it, and he took his training and schooling very seriously over the years until he managed to impress everyone. He had a lot of pride in who he had become and he was happy to be there. His interactions with a lot of the other characters in his story had been slim. 

The Mad Hatter managed to get Maddie, Kitty, and Lizzie out of harm’s way and into Ever After for their safety. They were hardly able to keep in touch with their family if at all, he wasn’t sure if they even could talk. The brothers Grimm had done everything to stop the evil curse from spreading across the realms.

Yet, years passed before the curse could finally be broken. 

Thanks to Raven Queen, and her friends, the curse was broken and taken away once and for all and the realms were in harmony once again. The portal to Wonderland was opened again and all of the people who had been forcibly separated from their families could finally go and see them once more. 

It may never go back to the way that it once was. 

But, that wasn’t a bad thing, Chase had discovered. Going back to the way things once were just wasn’t in line with Wonderland teaching, anyway. There was never a way to go back to because where you came from was where you were going and where you were going was where you had come from. 

So, he decided that he would try something new and that was how he found himself enrolling in Ever After High with the rest of his friends. Well, he knew Alistair and he knew Bunny, and he had gotten to know the others when they came to Wonderland to break the curse, but he wasn’t as familiar with them. 

He settled in classes, made top marks that would make Daring Charming envious of, and just thrived for the first time. 

School here was different from Wonderland High, it was more than just a day and it covered far more than he had ever thought to think of. Darling had told him about all of his options when they practiced back in Wonderland, and there was so much that he was trying out. There were a lot of sports. 

He had joined a few of the teams, as he had been asked by Darling and Cerise since he would be a real advantage to the Bookball team and the Jousting team. Girls had been allowed onto a lot of the teams recently, which didn’t make sense to him because a warrior was a warrior to Chase and it mattered not if they were a girl, a bird, or even a Jabberwock. 

Just one of those things where you found yourself a bit lost in a world that wasn’t built upon madness and disorder, you know? 

Apart from that, he didn’t have much else to think about in the way of his new life and experiences in Ever After. Chase had confidently set himself into what he wanted and it was working out smoothly. Well, there was one thing that he had noticed recently that had begun to make him scratch his head. 

Alistair had talked him into joining the Chess club because there were no members apart from himself and Bunny. Since chess was quite literally Chase’s entire life, it wasn’t all that hard for him to settle a score over the board. As long as he didn’t have to dance his way out of the sand again against Darling Charming, he was okay with it. 

_ Not that he was a sore loser about that time she had bested him or anything.  _

They would meet every few days to discuss tactics and battle plays while Bunny cheered them on in the background. 

Occasionally, she would play against Alistair and get her butt kicked fast. It wasn’t always like that but it was a comfortable way to hang out with friends without thinking about all of those times that he had caught these two where they shouldn’t be all the time back in the day. 

They all had a good laugh over that, honestly.

Chase would tease the two of them by arriving unannounced, his voice booming over the area as he said: “Hey! You two aren’t supposed to be here! Explain yourselves or be prepared to go and see the Vice Principal!” 

Alistair would jump to his feet with Bunny in tow, exclaiming that: “Oh, no, Bunny, let’s go before Chase catches us again!” 

Chase had never really had a chance to be around either of them for a long period, so it did surprise him when he realized that the two of them were close. But, these two seemed to have more than just friendship fluttering on their minds as it seemed. 

Like, much more than friends should be. 

Yet, they had no such title for their relationship as far as he knew. 

Chase would see their fingers bump against each other when they were placing their pieces. Or how Bunny would nervously tuck her hand against his sleeve with a little smile on her face while Alistair seemed none the wiser. Or, when Alistair would try to impress Bunny with something that he had learned that day and she didn’t quite react the way he wanted. 

If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that Alistair was trying to ask Bunny out on a date and she thought that he meant that they were going to go and explore together as friends instead. From that incident onward, Chase noticed more and more that he was watching from the middle as his two friends tried to get the other to notice their feelings. 

Yet, neither of them seemed as though they were ever going to notice that the other had feelings for the other. It was kind of frustrating to watch as his two friends just kept missing the point when it was right there! It was right there like a double-headed shark with pink and green polka dots. 

Chase attempted once to help them out, but the two of them just wound up hanging out with him for the rest of the afternoon. 

He had been walking off from one of these incidents when he caught sight of Kitty Cheshire watching from overhead, there was a snicker on her lips as she saw his face. “Trouble in the middle of the friend zone, huh? It isn’t all that purrfect, is it?” 

“Have they always been like this?” Chase asked, looking up at the girl with his head cocked. “I can’t remember it being this bad.” 

“Oh, they’ve always been bonkers for each other,” Maddie flipped down from the tree trunk that she and Kitty were sitting on as her knees hooked around the wood to keep her from falling over too far. “I can’t remember a tea time when Bunny wasn’t looking at Alistair with those goo-goo eyes!”

Chase rested his hands on his hips, “Well, I wouldn’t have believed you if we were back in Wonderland, but this isn’t Wonderland, girls. What are we going to do about this? I can’t keep being their third wheel. I already kind of us when I was chasing them but this seems a bit too much, even for me.” 

Maddie let out a gasp, kicking her feet up and fell only for Chase to catch her before she hit the ground. “Chase chasing people? Why wait for a tic, I think I have an idea that might just get the two of them to stop chasing after Chase and chase after each other instead!”

Kitty pressed a hand to her lips. “I think I know exactly what Maddie is getting at.” 

“Are either of you going to tell me your plan, then?” Chase asked, looking between the two girls as they beamed at one another. “Or, are we going to do this the hard way, and am I going to find out as it happens?” 

His question answered itself as the two girls set their plan into motion. He was to be the decoy for them at Ever After fairgrounds, waiting for Alistair to meet him there as Bunny arrived at the same spot to meet up with the others. They even managed to rope Lizzie into the plan by getting her to pick up Bunny.

Chase raised his hand to greet Alistair as he arrived, “Hey, man. You got here faster than I thought you would.” 

“Well, there were a few curious paths that I wanted to take along the way here but I promised that I wouldn’t get lost in the Enchanted Forest this time,” Alistair smiled sheepishly at his friend and rubbed the back of his head. 

Chase wondered how anyone in the Wonderland family didn’t get lost and simply disappear for years at a time. Alistair’s mother wanted more and more adventure and she was traveling through as many realms as she could manage to locate the last that he had heard, and Alistair was no different than she was. 

They wandered the grounds together and played a few games before they “accidentally” ran into the girls. 

Everyone decided to hang out together, and slowly, as the crowd got bigger and bigger, each member of their party took their leave and shouted about going to go ride something or play something before Bunny and Alistair realized that they were the only two left standing in front of the Ferris wheel. 

“Oh, look, Ginger made some pie! We better go get a bite before it’s all gone, Lizzie!” 

“I need to see those teacups, Chase! C’mon!” 

Bunny and Alistair glanced around to see that their friends were long but gone. Well, they sure couldn’t have expected that to happen today. But, it was something that was seemed to be fated in the stars for the rest of the day. 

She smiled, however as nervous as it was. 

“Um…” she said, softly. 

Alistair had the same expression on his face.

“Um…” he echoed. 

Neither of them said anything for a long moment until Alistair worked up the gall to glance between Bunny and the Ferris wheel. “You think we could see the entire fair if we go to the top of the ride?” he asked. 

Bunny breathed a sigh of relief when he asked something to break the nervous silence that had grown. She nodded her head. “Yeah, that would be fun. If everyone is going to be doing their own thing then we should hang out together then!”

Alistair seemed to be working out the courage to say something and he swallowed, “Together? You know, sort of like a… _ you know _ … if that’s something you might be interested in. I mean, it could always just be as friends.” 

Her cheeks began to darken with heat. 

“Together?” Alistair offered her his hand. 

“ _ Together _ ,” she took his offer with a laugh. “Like a,  _ you know _ .” 

The two of them may not be able to say the word  _ date  _ just yet, but their true friends watching from the background had hope that this was the start of something that would help Chase get out of the middle of their romantic debacle. Things may be changing in Ever After but a change was a good thing for everyone. 

Chase was glad that he was here to see it. 


End file.
